The University daily. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 18??-????, 1887-06-10
THE STAY-AT-HOME.
i SOUTHERN SKETCH.

Everybody knew where Davenport's
was, ana everybody made pilgrimages to
it in the hour of need. No matter
whether the need took the form of q
spool Of sewing silk Or iron castings for
gin stands--someWherc among Daven-
ports heterogeneous stock it wassure to
be found. Davenport" sported no
sign. 1T was proudly Independent Of
any such factitious aids Of prominence.
AS we'll label the country court house as
plaster q sign on Davenport's time -hon y
ored front. There was but one court
house and one Dayenport's and honors
we're easy between them in Slowville.
Furthermore (apropos ola sign), human
ingenuity would have been staggered to
compose any inscription for sign that
would have been mcasurably descrip-
tive ofEthe Ola podrida On Davenport's
shelves. t4. \ 4
Mail day was Davenport's harvest day
but matters within the store must be
pressing indeed to force Davenport him
self behind the counter. He looked
curiously out Of place weighing plug to-
bacco or drawing quart ofblack mo
lasses - payment for > dozen eggs.
There was a, totally irreconciliable in
congruity between him and his sur
roundihgs. He had the build Of an
athlete, and was one, withoutany scien-
tifc training. His head, superbly
shaped, and set squarely on o columnar
throat, was covered thickly with vel
low mass Of short curls, and his chin
with along silky beard Of the same col
or. His eyes were blue and bright and
penetrating. Apure Saxon type was
Davenport, with . general suggestion
u great physical strength add dslihsra
ate purpose about him. If the gray
-1tpre with its assured Income had not
cometo him by inheritance, doubtless he
would have done something with himself
IN the world. As it was, he shirked the
tobacco box and the molasses barrel
whenever practicable, and in the long
summer days, when there was not much
doing, he read Keats and Coleridge with
oblivious delight on the long store gal
lery, fighting flies with one hand all the
while. He had never been away from
home to school, couldn't be spared from
the store" He had grown up in it, but
has 81 never grown intoit Hidden some
where in that muscular organism of his
was q dumb unsatisfed longing for bet
ter things to &c and to be than fate had
50 far accorded him. When the war
broke put it was with an enyious pang
he saw other fellows go off to the field.
Ho would have loved to 90 with them,
but, looking his duty squarely in the
tfaoe bh the best light he had, there
seemedjto be a stronger call to stay at
home. He grew into aHmonster in local
estimation. His staying out of the army
had secured him the contempt of the
neighborhood; his busy, earnest specu-
lation* excited its disgust and horror.
Even ID the little house behind the
pomesranate bushes there were clouds
and distrust. Davenport's wife was no
longer proud of him. She hung her
head for him, and he knew it-knew it.
and WINGED under if silently, and
thought enyiousIy Of the men who were
.Toffswith the army, fighting and being
wounded. He would gladly have ex-
changed his wound for theirs.
When the river was blockaded and all
the country on both sides Of the Missis-
sippi, from Vieksburg to New Orleans,
was virtually in stage of siege, people
said: \ Now Davcnport's hour ofI triumph
had come and those who had been
most open in denouncing him recalled
their rash words regrctfully. What they
hed said was all true, Of course, but it
ia better been left unsaid, for IN all
the country nowhere but at DaYenport's
were medicines, d sugar, and tea, and
meal, and everything that went to sus-
tain lifeto be procured. The grinders
csased grinding and the great mill wheels
ss6bd motioniess. The nngathened crops
stood II the feds. 81 tie mercy 81 ma
fauding Cattle. a universal paralysis
seized npon The land. Paliid- faced
s6inen ssked. What nsxts